Catholic Social Teaching on human dignity

"The ultimate injustice is for a person or group to be treated actively or abandoned passively as if they were nonmembers of the human race. To treat people this way is effectively to say they simply do not count as human beings."

-- Catholic Charities Office for Social Justice, http://www.osjspm.org/

Micro-lending beats poverty!

http://www.kiva.org/team/st_michael_parish_social_concerns_ministry

Join us in making microloans thru Kiva and helping the hard working poor up and out of poverty!

$25 is all you need to get started.

Stand Up for Religious Freedom; Write to Congress

All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need. – Acts 2:45

Rally for Religious Freedom, Friday, June 8, noon, San Francisco.
Stand up for our religious freedom by pushing back against the new mandate from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which requires that all employers provide free contraceptives, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs through their health plans, even in violation of their consciences.  Rallies will be held nationwide.  Our nearest rally is at the HHS building, 90 Seventh Street, San Francisco.  Bishop Cordileone supports this rally.  For more information: http://standupforreligiousfreedom.com

Bishop Cordileone Calls All Catholic Voters to Write Congress, US President. 
“I therefore call on all of you, our good people in the Diocese of Oakland, to write to your congressional representatives and urge them to pass legislation to reverse this [HHS] mandate. I also ask you to contact President Obama and encourage him to continue to be open to putting into place robust protections of religious liberty for faith-based health, educational and social service organizations. The contact information to do this may be found on the Diocese home page at www.oakdiocese.org

"For Greater Glory" opens June 1st

The film "For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada" has an all star cast.  One theme of this excellent, epic movie is the fight for religious freedom.

Here is a link to the trailer:

Synopsis: What price would you pay for freedom? In the exhilarating action epic FOR GREATER GLORY an impassioned group of men and women each make the decision to risk it all for family, faith and the very future of their country, as the film's adventure unfolds against the long-hidden, true story of the 1920s Cristero War ­the daring people¹s revolt that rocked 20th Century North America.

Join Us in Praying a Novena to the Holy Spirit

You are invited to join us in a Novena to the Holy Spirit for the nine days leading up to Pentecost, May 18-26.

Set aside a few minutes on each of the nine days to quiet your mind and open your heart in prayer in honor of the Holy Spirit.  We pray for the seven gifts of the holy spirit: wisdom, understanding, right judgment, courage, knowledge, reverence, and wonder and awe of the Lord.

All are welcome to leave prayer intentions as a comment on each day's blog post.

More about the Novena to the Holy Spirit from EWTN:


The novena in honor of the Holy Spirit is the oldest of all novenas since it was first made at the direction of Our Lord Himself when He sent His apostles back to Jerusalem to await the coming of the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost. It is still the only novena officially prescribed by the Church. Addressed to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, it is a powerful plea for the light and strength and love so sorely needed by every Christian.  (read more here)

Mark your calendars and tell your friends!